Louis Lab Awarded the W-ERME Grant to Support Dairy Farms Resilience
Tulare, CA – May 26, 2025
By Luis Garcia Covarrubias ,PHD
We are delighted to share that Louis Lab at UC Davis has been awarded the Western Extension Risk Management Education (W-ERME) grant to lead a new project: “Building Resilience in California Dairy Farms: An Educational Program Addressing Industry Challenges, Farmer Exits, and Strategic Adaptation.”
The project will be directed by Dr. Luis Peña-Lévano, Assistant Professor of Cooperative Extension at UC Davis. The initiative brings together our interdisciplinary team, including Dr. Karl-Friedrich Boy and Dr. Garcia Covarrubias from UC Davis, as well as Dr. Shaheer Burney (University of Wisconsin-River Falls), Dr. Gabriel Rosero (Göttingen University), and creative project manager Victor Queirolo.
“This program isn’t just about addressing challenges, it’s about giving farmers a practical roadmap to resilience,” said Dr. Peña-Lévano.
The program major objective is to empower California’s dairy farmers with tools to strengthen their operations against pressing industry challenges. The program begins by engaging dairy producers in focus groups to understand their operational pressures and current strategies. Survey data will then be collected from across California to obtain insight into factors driving farm exits and identify scalable solutions that successful producers already use.
These findings will directly shape bilingual (English and Spanish) dissemination outputs, including as extension materials, pamphlets, bulletins, podcasts, and educational reels. Our new educational program will deliver focused support through statewide surveys, workshops, digital materials, and a national webinar. The program aims to provide farmers with actionable strategies in four key areas: automation technologies, sustainable practices, labor management, and disease risk mitigation.
We’re excited to share our progress and findings with you as the project moves forward!
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